Evolution of Relationship Marketing

• Relationship Marketing was first mentioned by American marketing

scholars Berry (1983) and Jackson (1985) as a marketing activity that
generates, retains, and promotes effective customer relationships for
companies.
• Rather than sales transactions, it specifically focuses on the value of
long-term customer relationships.
• The growth of the Internet and mobile platforms has served as an
excellent way of managing customer relationships. Social media
websites such as Facebook and Twitter had made it easier to
communicate with customers.
• Modern Relationship Marketing is not just about social media,
instead, it is about the complete customer journey.
• The practice of relationship marketing has been facilitated by several
generations of customer relationship management software, which
track and analyze each customer's preferences and activities.
• Technologies such as ‘site tracking’ (which sites were visited and for
how long) allowed companies can create automated (email)
campaigns with unique offers that are relevant to the customer.
• For example, an automobile manufacturer maintaining a database of
when and how repeat customers buy their products, including data
concerning their choices and purchase financing, can more efficiently
develop one-to-one marketing offers and product benefits.
Six Market Framework
Internal Market
• Before a firm can meet its
consumers’ demands, it should
meet its own employee’s needs
because the employees are the
one who build the relationship
with its customers. Also, the firm
needs to ensure that employees
can cooperate and work in a way
that aligns with the company’s
vision and mission.
Influence Market
• This market can involve
government body, regulators,
lobbyists, capital ventures. This
market can influence the
environment that the company
is operating in and can
potentially swerve the
company’s business in a certain
way.
Six Market Framework (contd.)
Recruitment Market
• The company also needs to pay
attention to this market in order
to recruit, build and keep the
most professional staff who are
able to create sustainable
relationships with clients and
other business partners.
Supplier Market
• Relationship marketing is different
from traditional marketing in that
while the latter tries to exploit
suppliers for the firm’s advantage,
the former focuses on creating a
long-term relationship in a win-win
approach. A stable supply chain is
expected to benefit firms in the
long run.
Six Market Framework (contd.)
Referral Market
• Referral market includes existing
customers, connectors,
intermediaries, etc. The people
can direct business to the
company and increase the
company’s profitability.
Customer Market
• This is obviously the most
important market for firms to
monitor. Relationship marketing
emphasizes the quality of the
relationship, not just the
number of relationships with a
view to maintaining valuable
long-term relationships.
 OnePlus
• OnePlus is a brand that incorporated relationship marketing
extensively in its marketing strategies and product promotions.
• Some of its relationship marketing practices are:
• Special invites to events
• OnePlus sends special invites to its existing customers for launch events and other
promotional events.
• Referral Programs
• OnePlus has referral programs where existing customers are rewarded if a new customer
purchases OnePlus device through their referral.
• Hearing is important !
• One important aspect in customer relationship is listening to customers and providing
customer centric promotion/products. OnePlus listens to its existing customers and
launches new products considering feedbacks.
 OnePlus
• OnePlus Community
• OnePlus has created a OnePlus Community for all OnePlus users to share ideas and
stories. It also uses this community in marketing campaigns to connect with all existing
users.
• Long Software Support
• OnePlus gives a lot of importance to customer retention and provides long software
support to old OnePlus devices to keep existing clients associated.

• All these practices not only helps retain existing clients but also helps in
creating new clients and helps in marketing products through existing client
network.
 Challenges and benefits in implementing
Relationship Marketing
CHALLENGES
• Maintaining real-time contact with the customers : Reduce the time gap between
customer query and the reply/ solution by the organization. Efforts should be made to reduce the
time gap levels to zero in communicating with the customer.
• Motivating customers to switch over from low-value products to high-value
products : Often incentives are provided to the customers whenever they switch to high- valued
products.
• Conversion of prospects into customers : Making customers loyal to the company’s
products and services is one of the key challenges of marketing. Producing customized products
and services and offering them to customers, identifying the key elements that make customers
loyal, and improving the key factors that contribute to customer loyalty.
 Challenges and benefits in implementing
Relationship Marketing
CHALLENGES
• Designing effective campaigns that appeal to customers and reducing the costs to
the marketer: This activity requires a complete understanding of the target customer.
Anticipating the changes in products/services that customers would demand requires continuous
feedback from the customer and its analysis.
• Identification of the customers who account for a major chunk of business with
the organization: These customers become high value customers for the organization. Once
these customers are identified, they should be treated in such a way that their accounts are not
lost.
 Challenges and benefits in implementing
Relationship Marketing
BENEFITS
• Building customer loyalty and commitment.
• Developing better communication channels.
• Increasing satisfaction among the customers
• Making customers feel important because of the increased personalization of services and
customization of goods offered to them.
• Improving the revenue through acquisition of new customer and retaining existing customers.
• Offering better customer service – through improved responsiveness and understanding that builds
customer loyalty and decreases customer turn over.
• Providing more avenues for customers to communicate and explain their needs to the organization
through numerous contact points.